The following invention relates to the storage of photographic negatives and, in particular, to a storage medium for storing photographic negatives in which positive images are used to identify the subject matter of the stored photographic negatives.
After a roll of photographic film has been developed and the photographs printed, the photographic negatives are usually cut into short strips and placed into sleeves to protect the negatives from damage. Each sleeve comprises an elongated rectangular pouch which does little more than protect the negatives. The sleeves are then placed in a package containing the printed photographs which is given to the customer for whom the photographs were printed.
A problem with the use of such sleeves is that it is difficult to determine which printed photograph is represented in each negative. When it is desired to make a duplicate of a photograph, many negatives must often be taken out of the sleeves in which they are stored and held up to the light to be scrutinized before it can be determined which negative represents the desired photograph. When handled in such a manner, fingerprints are often deposited on the negatives and the negatives can become scratched or otherwise damaged, resulting in poor quality reprints or enlargements.
In addition, when more than one roll of photographic negatives is stored in one place, such as a box or drawer, the sleeves containing each set of negatives often get separated from the printed photographs to which they correspond. This makes it even more difficult to find the negative that corresponds to a particular photograph.
It would therefore be beneficial to provide a system for storing photographic negatives which not only protects the negatives from damage, but in which each negative can be easily identified. It would be desirable if such a storage system were not significantly more expensive than the currently used sleeves for storing photographic negatives.
The present invention provides a storage medium for storing photographic negatives, the storage medium having positive images of the stored photographic negatives printed on an outer surface. The present invention also provides a system for obtaining positive images of photographic negatives and printing the positive images on the storage medium.
The storage medium generally comprises a plurality of sleeves, each of which forms a pocket in which the photographic negatives are stored. Each sleeve has a positive image of each photographic negative contained in that sleeve printed on an outer surface of the sleeve in a position corresponding to the location of the photographic negative which it represents. In this way, the subject matter of each stored photographic negative can be determined by reference to the positive images. The storage medium of the present invention is fabricated from one or more sheets of a material such as paper or plastic and the positive images can be printed on each sleeve in either color or black and white.
The system for obtaining positive images of photographic negatives and printing the positive images on the sleeves of the storage medium includes an image sensor onto which is projected the images contained on each photographic negative to be stored. The image sensor scans the projected images and provides electronic data representing each image to a control computer. The control computer electronically processes the data representing each image to obtain a positive image and provides the positive image to a printer. The printer can be a standard color or black and white printer and prints the positive image on the sleeve that is to contain the photographic negative from which the positive image was obtained.
The control computer, in addition to obtaining positive images from each scanned image, electronically processes each scanned image to correct for color variations and to improve image quality. In addition to being provided to a printer, the processed positive images can be provided to a floppy disc drive for storage on a floppy disc.
Each sleeve in the storage medium has a hole therethrough near an open end, enabling the storage medium to be stored in a ring binder with the open end of each sleeve facing a corresponding ring. This keeps the photographic negatives from sliding out of the sleeve in which they are stored while providing a convenient way in which to store and identify negatives from multiple rolls of film.